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“On a Mobile Fidelity version of Dire Straits’ Brothers in Arms, I heard a wealth of scintillating detail and instruments that popped out from the background with shape and aliveness.”
“I’ve grown to appreciate not only how they function as a company, but also how they manage to produce such remarkably beautiful and functional products that are all essentially hand-built.”
Impressions of South Korea’s thriving audio show, along with a handful of Best-of-Show rooms.
Prices listed in CA$. If there had been an award given out at the Audiofest for “Most Vintage-Looking Component”, the Fyne Classic Fifteen speakers ($50,000/pr) in the Villeneuve Audio Vidéo / Marchand Audio Vidéo room probably would have won it. The design is a point-source system whereby a bass/midrange cone is coupled to a high…
Prices listed in CA$. I have fond memories of the Technics brand name. My dad’s very first turntable was the Technics SL-QX300—the first turntable I ever touched. As a kid seeing a record player for the first time, I was mesmerized by this foreign device and intrigued by how it was able to make sound.…
Prices listed in CA$. This room looked more inviting to me than most other rooms I visited at the show. It looked like a private living room with plenty of space, so people waiting for a seat could just stroll around inside instead of waiting outside in the hallway, which was a relief. But it’s…
Prices listed in CA$. Norway-based Hegel has been steadily gaining popularity with its great-sounding and elegantly-styled products. Of the two rooms they hosted at this year’s Montreal show, one presented a static display of several of the company’s successful products, while the other had an active demo that included a pair of MoFi SourcePoint 8…
Prices listed in CA$. Filling up a humongous room is always a challenge for an audio system. And Lenbrook’s was probably the largest room I’d ever seen at an audio show. The PSB Synchrony T800 Premium loudspeakers ($16,999/pr) looked tiny against the front wall even though they weren’t small. They were placed so wide apart you could have…
Prices listed in CA$. As soon as I walked into the Brooklyn Audio room, I started to worry. ‘Oh no,’ I thought. “They have electrostatic speakers!’ Don’t get me wrong, I love flat panel speakers, like the planar-magnetic Magnepans I have at home, but both planars and electrostats are dipole designs, meaning they project sound to…
Prices listed in CA$ dollars unless otherwise noted. SVS is a company almost exclusively known for its subwoofers. So I was surprised to learn that they also make speakers. Doing its Canadian debut in the Laliberté Électronique room at the Montreal show were the Ohio-based company’s Pinnacle Ultra Evolution speakers (US$ 5000/pr; Canadian price TBD).…
Prices in CA$. When it comes to audio companies that offer great price-performance value along with cutting-edge technology and style, very few can do it better than Paradigm and Anthem. This year at the Toronto Audiofest, the two companies partnered up to present two rooms: One for music, which included a relatively minimalist 2.1 system that…
Prices listed in US$ except where otherwise noted. I heard more fantastic sound in the Audio by Mark Jones room, which displayed a pair of Apogee speaker-inspired planar-type Clarisys Audio Studio Plus speakers ($66,000/pair) allied to a stack of twin-chassis products that included a CH Precision 300Wpc M10 stereo power amplifier ($104,000), an L10 preamplifier…
I can’t imagine bigger audio news this year than that of Audio Research filing for something akin to a Chapter 11 bankruptcy. Fearing that such an iconic company – one I always took for granted as being indestructible – might possibly go under and disappear from the audio landscape was disheartening and unsettling to me.…
Prices listed are in CA$. You might assume that my mood darkened when a bass beat began pounding through my hotel room wall from the adjacent room while I was trying to concentrate on my writing, but it was the opposite. My mood was lifted. Swayed by the music’s tribal pulsations and sense of immediacy,…
Episode 101 This week Bill Low, founder & chief designer of the acclaimed company AudioQuest, joins Jay Jay for part 2 of their conversation! Don’t miss this insightful discussion about the world of audio & its importance in our daily lives.AudioQuest is a company that develops tools for enhancing the in-home experience of audio and…